The specification generally relates to providing access to contact information based on image recognition. More specifically, the specification relates to using relationships in a social network to predict the identity of users in images and for determining whether to provide access to contact information.
Before the use of mobile devices became widespread, people used to obtain contact information by exchanging business cards and writing down numbers. Once mobile devices, such as cell phones became more popular people began exchanging numbers by typing them directly into the cell phone. This is time consuming and creates too many possibilities for user error.
One prior art application mimics a fist bump by exchanging contact information between two people when their mobile devices touch. Specifically, the mobile devices include an accelerometer that tracks the movement of the mobile devices and compares the signatures of each device to infer an intentional approval to pass contact information from one person to another. In this example, the backend server recognizes that the two mobile devices shake in the same pattern and that the movement is not random and is therefore intended as permission to exchange information. This is a limited solution that requires both people to have mobile devices running the same application and physical contact between the mobile devices.